Shinzo Abe Shot: Condition, Suspect, Latest Details

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot on Friday in the city of Nara in western Japan, according to local media. Abe, who was rushed to the hospital, is showing no vital signs, the local fire department said.

A reporter for the Japanese public broadcaster NHK said she heard what sounded like two gunshots, and saw Abe bleeding. Abe was making a stump speech on the street ahead of July 10 elections for the upper house of parliament.

Abe, 67, was reportedly shot from behind, possibly with a shotgun, NHK reported, citing police sources. NHK is reporting that a man was apprehended at the scene.

Abe, Japan’s longest serving prime minister, held office from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. He resigned in 2020, citing health issues.

Despite leaving public office, Abe remained perhaps the most prominent politician in Japan. He was campaigning for his Liberal Democratic Party when he was shot.

Here’s what we know so far.

What happened?

Emergency workers at the scene after an attack on Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Kintetsu Yamato-Saidaiji station square in Nara on July 8, 2022.

JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images

In video footage circulating on social media, Abe is speaking in front of a crowd of a few hundred people when a loud bang is heard from behind him and a cloud of apparent gunsmoke can be seen. Abe does not move after the first shot, but as the camera pans away and people begin to scream, a second gunshot is heard.

Tobias Harris, a longtime Japan watcher based in Washington who wrote a biography about Abe, told TIME that in Japan, “the distance between politicians and the public is very close.”

“He’s a high-profile former prime minister, so he’s got more security than most, but he’s not kind of flanked by the kind of security you would see for a comparable American official,” says Harris.

Why is Shinzo Abe so important to Japanese politics?

It’s hard to overstate Abe’s power and influence in Japanese politics—even after he resigned as prime minister.

He ushered in “Abenomics,” a set of aggressive monetary and fiscal policies aimed at pulling Japan out of economic stagnation. The success of Abenomics in its early years raised Abe’s international reputation.

He campaigned for rewriting…